Real Money

Blue Chips Stage Rally

Mining, energy and housing stocks lift the Dow and the S&P.

Gains in energy, mining and housing stocks helped the market overcome a slow start and rally to a higher close Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 56.64 points, or 0.45%, to 12,533.80, and the S&P 500 tacked on 5.04 points, or 0.35%, at 1427.99. The Nasdaq Composite eked out a gain of 0.34 points, or 0.01%, at 2431.41.

Roughly 3.03 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, where advancers beat decliners by a 2-to-1 margin. Volume on the Nasdaq topped 2.04 billion shares, with winners outpacing losers 3 to 2.

"The market is back in a trading range, or perhaps it never left," said Ken Tower, chief market strategist with CyberTrader. "The S&P has been buoyed no doubt by this week's strength in energy shares. The longer-term rally remains intact."

Supporting the advance was a 4.7% climb in the Amex Gold Bugs index, a 2.9% rise in the Philadelphia Oil Service Sector index and a 2.4% gain in the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Housing Sector index.

Commodities prices surged. The newly benchmarked March crude oil futures contract was up $2.46 at $55.04 a barrel. Natural gas gained 28 cents to $7.60 per million British thermal units.

Gold jumped $11.80 to close at $645.90 an ounce, and silver was up 26 cents at $13.26 an ounce.

Meanwhile, Wall Street had plenty of corporate earnings to digest, including several from Dow components.